Program offers financial incentive for
student medical researchers

To spur greater interest
in health science, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will repay
up to $35,000 of educational loan debt annually for individuals who
commit to conducting at least two years of qualified biomedical or
behavioral research at a nonprofit institution of their choice.

NIH is accepting applications for its extramural Loan Repayment
Programs (LRPs), and is promoting the opportunities through an
awareness campaign slogan, “You do the research. NIH will repay your
student loans.”

The annual application cycle started Sept. 1 and will continue until
Dec. 1 for the five extramural LRPs: clinical research, pediatric
research, health disparities research, contraception and infertility
research, and clinical research for individuals from disadvantaged
backgrounds.

“The purpose of these programs is to recruit and retain
highly-qualified health professionals as scientific investigators,”
said Norka Ruiz Bravo, Ph.D., NIH deputy director for extramural
research. “Expanding the pool of researchers is critical to the health
of our nation, and the LRPs play an important role in researcher
retention.”

Participants receive loan repayment benefits and tax offsets, which
serve as means of helping them remain in the scientific workforce.

Each year, about 1,600 research scientists benefit from the more than
$70 million NIH invests in their careers through the extramural LRPs.
On average, approximately 40 percent of all new LRP applications are
funded.

To qualify for the LRPs, applicants must possess a doctoral-level
degree (except for Contraception and Infertility Research LRP); devote
at least 20 hours per week to research funded by a domestic nonprofit
organization or federal, state, or local government entity; have
educational loan debt equal to or exceeding 20 percent of their
institutional base salary; and be a U.S. citizen, national, or
permanent resident. Visit http://www.lrp.nih.gov.

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